Black Lives Matter Wins Global Peace Prize

Black Lives Matter is in the news, but fortunately in this instance not for yet another Black life needlessly lost. The founders of the movement’s formal organization have been awarded a global peace prize.

The Black Lives Matter social justice movement has been recognized with a global peace prize that in the past has highlighted the work of South African civil rights activist Desmond Tutu, renowned philosopher Noam Chomsky and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

The Sydney Peace Foundation announced last week it will give Black Lives Matter its 2017 peace prize during a ceremony scheduled in November for Sydney. The award recognizes the work of the founding leaders of the social justice activist network, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, who began working together after Florida neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 in the shooting death of black teen Trayvon Martin.

“This is the first time that a movement and not a person has been awarded the peace prize—a timely choice. Climate change is escalating fast, increasing inequality and racism are feeding divisiveness, and we are in the middle of the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Yet many establishment leaders across the world stick their heads in the sand or turn their backs on justice, fairness and equality,” the Sydney Peace Foundation said in announcing the award.